LSP_Kevin

Thanks, Nick. I just need your full name so I can credit the article properly. Kev

Terrific build, Piero! May I publish it on the website? Kev

Lovely work, Nick! May I publish it on the website? Kev

On here at least, HL-10 is Angelo Picardo. Kev

Good to hear from you Nicolas, but I'm so sorry to hear about your father. My condolences to you and your family. Model building is of course a secondary consideration at times like this, but I'm sure you'll return to it with renewed vigour when you once more get the chance. Kev

That's something I do all the time - a little bit of chemical sanding goes a long way! It's something I learned to do as a clean-up technique for rescribing, and it seemed natural to expand its use from there. Just keep in mind that it's not a panacea, and is really only good for fine scratches and rough surfaces, rather than anything more pronounced. Kev

I think his real skill is in having a very good eye, and knowing what to use when, and when enough is enough. Kev

Just watched this only yesterday. What I really like is that he gets fantastic results from not really doing anything special. I've been finding his work very inspirational, and it's starting to restore some mojo for me to get back to the bench. The diorama he did to accompany the model is also fantastic. Kev

So here's the thing: nothing has been changed, tweaked, or adjusted at all. It's just the usual vagaries of our unreliable hosting platform. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not, and most of the time it's simply bearable. It also seems to vary geographically, but there's really no evident pattern to any of it. One day we'll move the site to a better host, but until then, we'll just have to put up with it (or more likely, this thread will just keep getting longer and longer). Kev

Howdy folks, I've just uploaded the latest What's New update. Enjoy! Kev

Howdy folks, I've just published my review of some replacement Lancaster wheels from Barracuda: Barracuda Studios BR32409: 1/32 Lancaster Main Wheels - Smooth Tire Thanks to Barracuda Studios for the review sample. Enjoy! Kev

Howdy folks, I've just published my review of a handy set of utility decals from Fantasy Printshop: Fantasy Printshop FP1080: RAF 8" Serial Numbers & Letters WWII and 1946 Style Thanks to Fantasy Printshop for the review sample. Enjoy! Kev

Terrific work, Brett! Kev

Howdy folks, I've just published my review of some new Mirage decals from Fantasy Printshop: Fantasy Printshop ED-32121: Dassault Mirage III Thanks to Fantasy Printshop for the review sample. Enjoy! Kev

I suspect it's actually yet another evolution of the old Trimaster/Dragon kit. I tried to suss it out on Scalemates, but their product timeline feature is nearly incomprehensible: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-03930-focke-wulf-fw190d-9--1026308 FWIW, I believe the Hasegawa kit has its origins with Trimaster/Dragon too. Kev

Honestly I just paint top and bottom separately most of the time. Kev

So, winner of the September raffle is Dpgsbody55, who wins a collection of paint masks from DN Models, a pair of Tornado decal sets from Fantasy Printshop, and the 1/24 RAF groundcrew set from Barracuda Studios. EDIT: I forgot to add that the package includes a couple of sets of 1/24 scale seat belts from MDC. Apologies for the oversight! Congrats to Michael for being our lucky winner, and thanks to all our generous sponsors for providing the prizes! Don't forget that all you have to do to qualify for the October raffle draw is to start an active build thread here in the WiP forum. That's it! So, get those build threads started and you just never know. Kev

Howdy folks, I've just published my review of some Tornado stencils from Fantasy Printshop: Fantasy Printshop ED-32118: Panavia Tornado GR.4 Stencils Thanks to Fantasy Printshop for the review sample. Enjoy! Kev

Howdy folks, I've just published my review of some 1/24 RAF groundcrew from Barracuda: Barracuda Studios BR24217: RAF Groundcrew Assembling 3" Rocket Thanks to Roy at Barracuda Studios for the review sample. Enjoy! Kev

Howdy folks, I've just published my review of some new Ta 152 tyres from Barracuda: Barracuda Studios BR32394: Ta 152H Mainwheels - Smooth Tire Thanks to Roy at Barracuda Studios for the review sample. Enjoy! Kev

Because we're hosted with the hosting provider equivalent of Walmart, and these variable performance issues have literally been going on for years now. We upgraded from shared hosting to a VPS with the same host some years back, and that helped somewhat initially (at a significant increase in costs), but clearly problems remain. I suspect that if we moved somewhere with better reliability and performance, it would come with a concomitant increase in costs. We can bear these (in the short term, anyway) - but it's a lot of wasted time, effort and money if it doesn't then fix the problem. One test that I might ask folks to perform in the interests of getting a better handle on the problem, is when you're having performance issues with the forums, go to the main website and see if they exist there too: https://www.largescaleplanes.com If they do, then it's more likely a hosting issue; if they don't, then it's more likely to be an issue with the forums themselves. Kev

It's most likely a hosting issue, but I really can't say for sure what the problem is. It's definitely intermittent, as most of the time it's acceptable, with occasional dips into each extreme. It's certainly in the mostly OK zone for me at the moment, and ping times are within acceptable limits. Usually, variable network performance from varying locations is a DNS problem, but they're difficult to test or prove. We're well overdue to move hosts anyway, but that's a really major undertaking - just like moving house in real life is. LSP has a really large server footprint, and without some kind of inter-host migration assistance, I'd have to upload a backup from my computer to a new host. And at my current upload limit of 2MB/s, that would take...months. So, the logistics of moving to a new host are a real barrier, and given my ever-decreasing levels of free time, it remains in the too-hard basket. Kev

And yet for me it's quite fast (or at least 'normal') at the moment. Kev

It could be either, since the character sets are related. Kev

Indeed there was, and your post made me realise that I completely forgot to announce it! The winner was Antonio Arguda, who won a Trumpeter Ju 87 on skis courtesy of Ray. Kev